Chris Robshaw allowed himself a couple of drinks on Saturday evening as well
as many smiles and probably a few tears.

The Harlequins captain headed back across the road to the Stoop after winning the Aviva Premiership title at Twickenham and what had already been a memorable day continued as he joined up with friends, family and hundreds of Quins fans, clamouring for their heroes to join them on the pitch.

“It was overwhelming, it really was, with Nick Easter up there orchestrating the sing-song, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Like the Mighty Quin,’ being belted out, it was pretty special,” recalled Robshaw.

“We don’t get to let our hair down too often but it was right to celebrate, to repay the supporters and to acknowledge what a great year it has been for us.”

Some year all right. And for Robshaw in particular, his fortunes having transformed extraordinarily since he was left out of Martin Johnson’s World Cup squad 10 months ago despite making a considerable impression at the summer training camp.

On Monday he was packing his bags as England captain, acclaimed throughout the land never mind just in the vicinity of the Stoop, bound for South Africa on Wednesday night.

They are a squad united in a common cause, one shaped by head coach Stuart Lancaster, their values espoused by the selfless captain, a popular figure if for no other reason than he would always be the last to ever court popularity.

If Robshaw went into camp on Monday night with a warm smile on his face, then surely the nine vanquished Leicester players would be arriving with slumped shoulders and downcast looks? Would Robshaw commiserate or do a Basil Fawlty and try to not mention the war?

“It won’t be an issue,” he said. “We’re on England duty, the club season is over. We’re all going there to represent England. I shared a room with [Leicester prop] Dan Cole throughout the Six Nations. It won’t be hard at all.

"That’s the nature of sport. It’s not difficult having club as well as country loyalties. Everyone thinks it must be but it isn’t. It’ll be business as usual as soon as we meet up. It has to be.

“We spent a lot of time working to get a good team spirit together during the championship.

“When we broke camp on the Sunday after our last game of the tournament against Ireland, it was tricky in a way to realise that that particular experience had come to an end. We’ve got to pick up that mood straight away. We can’t go in there as individuals, basking in our glory or other boys wallowing in self-pity. We’ve got to be a team again right from the moment we gather. The tour to South Africa is as tough as it gets.”

It is that. And it would be easy to write off England’s chances of a first victory there in 12 years. Except that we have written off England several times since Lancaster took over.

They would never win in Edinburgh with seven new caps. They would struggle in Rome (which they did but they won). And as for finishing off the championship with a win in Paris and a hammering of Ireland, well, that wasn’t on many people’s cards.

As with England, so with Robshaw. Was he a true test No 7? He is a grafter, durable and reliable, but top-drawer openside? Again, not many thought so.

And yet with each passing game he has grown in stature, topping the tackle counts and ball-carrying yardage stats.

Or perhaps he has always performed like that, and it is our perceptions that have been obliged to change. Against Leicester he eclipsed his opposite number, Julian Salvi, considered to be one of the Premiership’s genuine opensides. It has been a madcap season, surely his best ever.

“It’s not over yet,” he said. “The South Africa tour is very much part of it all and we all want to go down there and do well, show if you like that our form in the Six Nations championship was not a fluke. The tour is not some sort of add-on. We want to try and really impose ourselves.”

Surely, though, he must pinch himself at times?

“Yeah, it has been quite a turnaround from being down-in-the-dumps at missing out on the World Cup to what’s happened since then,” said Robshaw, revealing that he was nervous when he first got the captaincy.

“But I got a lot of good advice, from Conor O’Shea to [former All Blacks captain] Sean Fitzpatrick and Will Carling. They all told me to be myself. It was the same when I took over at ‘Quins.

“I got very stressed, tried to do everything, worried about everything and everybody, til Nick Easter took me aside and pointed out that there were lots of other people around, like him, to take on responsibilities too.

"I’ve been fine since then. Yes, it is all a bit surreal and crazy. Thinking back to when Stuart asked me to be captain still brings me out in a warm glow. It’s all been brilliant, I wouldn’t change a minute of it, the bad as well as the good.”

There has been more of the latter, that’s for sure. On Monday Robshaw posted a joint statement with O’Shea on the Harlequins website, thanking fans for their support, particularly the guard of honour that was formed as they made their way to Twickenham "making a routine walk into an inspirational, never-to-be-forgotten, spine-tingling moment".

And that’s it, all over, consigned to the memory box. Robshaw was back with his England mates on Monday night, Quin and Tiger united in what lies ahead. The past can look after itself.